Charles Manson Orgins Of A Madman

Charles Manson: Orgins Of A Madman Essay, Research Paper

Charles Manson: Orgins of a Madman

Charles Manson is known as one of the most sinister and evil criminals

of all time. He organized the murders that shocked the world and his name still

strikes fear into American hearts. Manson’s childhood, personality, and uncanny

ability to control people led to the creation of a family-like cult and

ultimately to the bloody murders of numerous innocent people.

Charles M. Manson was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on November 11, 1934.

His mother, Kathleen Maddox, was a teenage prostitute. Manson’s father walked

out on the still pregnant Maddox, never to be seen again. In order to give her

bastard son a name, Ms. Maddox married William Manson. He soon abandoned the

both of them.

Manson’s mother often neglected Charles after her husband left her. She

tried to put him into a foster home, but the arrangements fell through. As a

last resort she sent Charles to school in Terre Haute, Indiana. Mrs. Manson

failed to make the payments for the school and once again Charles was sent back

to his mother’s abuse. At only fourteen, Manson left his mother and rented a

room for himself. He supported himself with odd jobs and petty theft. His

mother turned him into the juvenile authorities, who had him sent to “Boys

Town,” a juvenile detention center, near Omaha, Nebraska. Charles spent a total

of three days in “Boys Town” before running away. He was arrested in Peoria,

Illinois for robbing a grocery store and was then sent to the Indiana Boys

School in Plainfield, Indiana, where he ran away another eighteen times before

he was caught and sent to the National Training School for Boys in Washington

D.C. Manson never had a place to call “home” or a real family. He spent his

childhood being sent from one place to another, and trouble always seemed to

follow him. His mother’s negligence left Manson without a home and without much

of a future. Manson turned to crime to support himself, and he soon became very

good at it. When just a child, he became a criminal and spent his last years of

childhood in a correctional facility.

After his release from the training school in 1954, a new period of

Manson’s life began. He went to West Virginia and soon married a girl named

Rosalie Jean Willis. She became pregnant and Manson had a child. This was

Manson’s first real family, but he didn’t stray from the criminal lifestyle. He

started stealing cars to make the money necessary to support his new family. By

the time the baby was born, Manson was in prison on Grand Theft Auto charges.

In 1958 Charles was released from prison. His wife and child had left

him, leaving Charles alone once again. Several arrests for car theft and

pimping followed; in 1960 Charles was given ten years imprisonment for forging

government checks. While he was serving his ten year sentence at McNeil

Penitentiary, he studied philosophy, took up guitar, and taught himself sing and

compose songs. His newfound musical skills would later attract followers. His

study of philosophy helped create some of his outlandish ideas that later

appealed to his would-be followers. Manson was released in March, 1967 after

serving seven years. By the time Manson was thirty-two years old, he had spent

seventeen years, more than half of his life, in prison.

This long stretch of incarceration had left its mark. “If Charlie has

any roots, they’re in the penal system,” 1 said one acquaintance.

“Inside, you have to be aware of everything, and when he

came out, Charlie was like a cat. Nothing got by Charlie if

something happened within a hundred miles of him, he

made sure he knew about it. Everytime he came into a

room, he cased it, like an animal. Where were the

windows. What was the quickest way out. He never sat

with his back to the door.”

Soon after his release, Manson traveled to Haight Ashbury, where the

“hippie” movement was in full force. At this time, hippies were gentle people,

believing in peace, love, and sharing with others. This was a perfect

environment for Manson to gain followers. Manson’s probation officer remembers

he was “shaken” by the friendliness of the hippies, but before long, Manson

learned how to exploit it. He started to collect a retinue of impressionable

girls searching for a community of love. With a guitar, a pleasant voice,

sinuous mannerisms, and sweet talk with empty promises, Manson convinced many

young-adults to leave their lives and families to be with him. The beginnings of

his “Family” took shape.

Whenever Manson succeeded in gaining one of these followers, the first

thing he did was to deprogram both their ego and their “hang ups,” about

conventional society. By “hang ups,” he meant anything he did not like.

Richard DeMargeno, a criminologist, believed Manson was able to control these

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